In sport and recreational fishing, fishing lures with multiple hooks are often used as a substitute for live bait or as the preferred form of fish attractant. Some lures can be very expensive and include arrays of multiple hooks attached to the end of the fish profile or lure body. The hooks of the lure make it prone to snagging on an object. This often occurs when fishing over coral, rocks or submerged tree branches.
As a result, fishing lure retrievers have been developed with the aim of retrieving snagged lures. Unfortunately, snagged lures are not generally visible to the angler and thus anglers may try different types of retrievers to free a lure from an object. Generally, lure retrievers fall into three broad categories: “break away,” “extendable pole” and “sliders.”
“Break away” lure retrieval devices are designed to incorporate a weak link between the lure body and the hook(s). If a hook of the lure becomes snagged, the angler can intentionally break the link between the body and the hook; thereby leaving the hook, but retrieving the lure body. This has been previously noted to have its deficiencies.
“Extendable pole”—type devices comprise extendable rods or poles, typically having a predetermined length and are of limited use and lack user friendliness.
“Slider” type devices attach to the actual fishing line and slide down the fishing line to the snagged lure. Slider retrievers can include knockers, chain-type devices or latching devices. Knockers are used to knock loose the lure. Chain-type devices combine the use of a weight with a series of chains. The weight is threaded onto the fishing line and allowed to slide down to the snagged lure. The chains are jostled in an attempt to ensnare a free hook of the lure. Once a chain is hooked onto the lure, the whole assembly is pulled to free the lure. Latching devices are slid down to the fishing line to the snagged lure, where they latch onto the lure by a device to grab the snagged lure and then the device is pulled back up.
Anglers may carry many types of lure retrievers to cope with the variety of snag situations which could occur. While the prior devices have met with some prior success, the present invention provides an improvement over the art which deals with a wide variety of snagged lure situations and quick and effective means for retrieving snagged lures. Further, the present invention aims to alleviate and address some of the disadvantages of other fishing lure retrieval devices described above and otherwise present in the art, to provide an improved, convenient, easily manufactured lure retrieval device.